The unlawful Mayo killing of Joe Deacy and the ongoing search for answers
"He didn’t get the chance to see his beloved Mayo climb the steps of the Hogan Stand"
by Dr. Richard Martin
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
'Cause here they come
- Florence + The Machine
ON the day of the All-Ireland, I was in the Hill. I was in the stadium early enough. Right at the very back. I could see the lower Cusack filling for the hour or two before the game and the Mayo supporters taking over the stadium. The Hill filled in front of me. All Mayo.
Watching all of this unfold, a few thoughts flickered through my head before the game. One person did enter my mind. Joe Deacy. I never met him. I didn’t know him. But he was one of us. A Mayo GAA diehard. On the 28th of May he would’ve been 30 years of age.
Without any shadow of a doubt he would’ve been in that stadium on the special day no Mayo person can or will ever forget. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. Because he’s dead. He passed away on 13th August, 2017.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the background to the story, a quick Google search will bring you to a webpage on garda.ie. It’s titled ‘Unlawful Killing of Joe Deacy, Gortnasillagh, Mayo on 11/08/2017’.
It says the following:
"Gardaí at Claremorris Garda Station are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of twenty-one-year-old Joe Deacy who was found unconscious with head injuries in a driveway of a house in Gortnasillagh, Co. Mayo, on Saturday 12 August 2017."
Joe, from St. Albans in the United Kingdom, was visiting relatives and friends in the west of Ireland, specifically Galway and Mayo. Joe loved soccer and Gaelic football and spent several summers as a young boy visiting the west of Ireland.
During his teenage years Joe maintained contact with family, friends and cousins and visited them often, attending the Galway races and Gaelic football matches.
On the 11th of August 2017, Joe had once again visited family and friends in Ireland. He went to a bar known locally as Paddy’s bar in Kiltimagh. Later Joe returned to the house where he was staying in the townland of Gortnasillagh.
At 6.45 a.m. on Saturday morning, 12 August, Joe was found unconscious in the driveway of the house with head injuries. Joe died at Beaumont Hospital the following day from his injuries.
The language of the heart is a bit simpler. The simple story is that a young 21-year-old man was found unconscious with head injuries, and the person or persons responsible have not been brought to justice. His family and friends - the people who knew Joe - are heartbroken.
As time ebbs forward, never looking back, the grief thickens and the wound deepens. Losing a parent or a grandparent is sad but it’s the natural progression of life. Losing a child is a tragedy.
It’s one thing to lose someone you love. But to lose someone in the circumstances in which Joe Deacy died is something else entirely.
How can you go through the stages of grief and reach a place of acceptance and closure when there are still so many questions unanswered?
Post-mortem results revealed he suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Who assailed him?
At the heart of the whole matter is the truth. How did this happen? Why was Joe attacked? And by whom?
Justice for Joe means finding the truth. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Nine years on, his family and friends are still waiting for answers.
My close friend Jarlath Cunningham has attended the memorial walk every year since Joe’s passing. His wife Ann Marie hailed from Bohola. I decided to follow his example and attend the memorial walk last year.
Councillor Brendan Mulroy brought me to the event. Brendan has consistently raised the ongoing, unsolved case and garda investigation with Jim O’Callaghan on his ministerial visits to the county.
He has also highlighted the case with local and national media. That has to be commended. It’s gutsy, courageous and noble.
Truthfully, I was fairly flat for a few days after the walk. In the aftermath, a friend suggested I should avoid going in the future. For my own sake. Watch out for yourself. It might be best.
But I don’t want to do that. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I don’t want him to become a forgotten person. A footnote. A statistic. A non-person.
The GAA is tribal. Mayo GAA, if anything, is tribal. We come together in Croke Park year after year, good days and bad, in brotherhood. Joe was one of us. He was part of the tribe. He can’t be forgotten.
His relatives have confided in me that he loved Mayo, he loved coming here, he loved Mayo GAA and spent his time playing football with relatives and watching them play.
In 2017, the year he was killed, he had travelled to Mayo six times. Over and back from London. Six times. Shortly before his death, he even applied for an Irish passport.
Anyone who was present on the day of the final, as the players paraded around the pitch with the Sam Maguire, will remember the song ‘Dog Days Are Over’ being played over the PA system. Words can’t describe what it was like to be present in Croke Park in the aftermath of that game.
It was finally over. Strangers hugging and crying. I must’ve hugged half of Swinford.
Joe Deacy wasn’t there. He should’ve been there. But he wasn’t. He didn’t get the chance to see his beloved Mayo climb the steps of the Hogan Stand.
He didn’t get the chance to hug his family and friends in the days and weeks after. He didn’t get the chance to go to the homecoming in MacHale Park and celebrate into the early hours.
As for his family and friends? Unfortunately, the dog days aren’t over. Until they find out the truth, the suffering, trauma and anguish continue.
I don’t know a lot, but I know this. If there’s another world, he lives in bliss. If there is none, he made the best of this.